The St. Timothy cross-country team did not disappoint with their efforts at the annual Calgary Catholic School District (CSSD) Junior High Meet of Champions on Oct. 5.
The top city qualifiers contested a 2.5 km course at Ascension of Our Lord School and the team came away with four medals and multiple top 10 and top 20 placings. Darci Petersen ended her JH XC career on a fine note, winning the Meet of Champs for the third year in a row. Her teammate Grace Boston placed sixth in the Grade 9 girls race. Emily Carvalho just narrowly missed the top 10 with a 12th place effort, by far the best race of her young and promising running career.
The Thunder’s second City Champion came from the Grade 8 girls race, where Holly Moores followed up her Grade 7 gold medal performance with a convincing win in the Grade 8 division. Sofia Preece gutted out a hard earned bronze medal, and teammate Makenna Myatt placed 10th overall.
In the Grade 7 boys race, Ethan Horb won a bronze after going for broke over the first half of the race in attempt to break the field.
Thunder Head Coach Travis Cummings was quite proud of how his Grade 7 superstar preformed.
“In the famous words stated after the 1972 Munich 5,000m final, ‘One man won the race, but another man made the race,’” said Cummings quoting legendary American runner Steve Prefontaine, who finished in fourth place in the 1972 5,000m, which he said is arguably the gutsiest running performance in Olympic history.
“Ethan didn’t win the race, but his competitors had to bleed to beat him, this young man has a bright future in the Thunder running program.”
Rounding out our top 10 finishers was Allyson Bentley in the Grade 7 girls race, she placed a very respectable fifth overall and narrowly missed a medal. Other top performances included Trenton Spademan, Liam McCullough, Alex Aguilar, Lucas Rott, and Miranda Hobbs.
Cummings couldn’t express how proud he was of his junior high team.
“Myself as well as the other coaches are very proud of how the team performed at the Meet of Champions,” Cummings said.
“I’m really looking forward to what’s next to come with this group.”
Next up for the junior high squad is the Athletics Alberta Provincial Championships on Nov. 4 in Wetaskawin.
